Product Development And Marketing Requirements For New Range Of Canned Products

PESTLE Analysis

This report depicts the role of product development and its marketing requirements for new range of canned products for major food manufacturers. It is important for the developers to consider all necessary components to produce such range of products. In this case the nominated products that will be produced for the major food manufactures are new range of premium canned soups.  In order to develop such products a professional project team is to be created based on their skills, knowledge and experience.

A PESTLE analysis should be conducted to understand the internal and external competitive market including an accurate project plan, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt chart.  During the marketing of the products proper research and development session is also conducted by the project development team members. In addition to this, a risk management strategy, RACI matrix for conducting professional communication and a stakeholder management strategy for the project stakeholders are also developed and elaborated in this report. It is expected that if all of these criteria are maintain accurately then the producer company and the R&D team both will be equally benefited.  

The aim of any food producing company is to deliver quality products to the consumers within estimated time and affordable price. Additionally, the tastes of the products are also required to be unique and delicious to grab new consumers and to retain existing customers. The developers will be producing premium soups for major food manufacturer thus an accurate external analysis in terms of PESTLE analysis is illustrated in this report.  

Political: Political factor plays significant and active roles for determining the factors that may impact the canned soup manufacturer ling terms benefit in a certain market. The soup manufacturers are operating in processed and packaged products in many countries simultaneously for exposing themselves in various political system risks and environment. Before entering to the producing function the followings are the components on which the R&D should focus include:

• Political stability and importance of the processed and canned soup in the economy of the country
• Protection for the intellectual properties
• All favored business partners
• Consideration of mandatory employee profit
• Tax rates and incentives
• Regulation  for different flavored soup products
• Trade regulations and customer’s related tariff

Economic: The macro ambiance factor in terms of the inflation rate, rating rate, foreign rate for exchange as well as economic cycle are the collaboratively demand and aggregates the demand and investment in an economy. If the micro environmental factors impact the competitive advantages then the economic factors of the country in terms of growth rate, inflation can be eventually used. The factors those will be examined by the economic analysis include the following:

• Rate of inflation and interest
• Rate of unemployment, discretionary income
• Labor cost and economic productivity
• Skills within the workforce and business cycle stages

Social: The societal culture also impacts the canned soup products research and development and its delivery to major food manufacturers. The factors those should be measured for the social analysis include:

• The level of skills and demographics of the population
• The hierarchy of the class structure, hierarchy and power structure
• The leisure interest
• The attitudes in terms of health and environmental consciousness and culture like role of the members

Project Plan and Work Breakdown Structure

Technology: Technology is referred to as another important factor that has to be considered for the successful development and delivery of the canned soup products for major food companies. The factors to be analyzed for this are demonstrated below:

• Current technologies adopted by the different competitors of the soup producing research and development team
• Impact of technology on the offered soups
• In processing and packaging the impact of the technology based cost structure
• Rate of the technical diffusion

Legal: The factors to be analyzed in terms of legal analysis are as follows:

• Data protection and security
• Discrimination law
• Patent copyright, healthy and safety law
• For processing and packaging canned soup products proper anti-trust law
• Protection of the consumers and e-commerce business

Environment

The environmental factors those are needed to be analyzed accordingly include the following:

• Change in weather and climate
• The laws those are regulating the environmental population
• Recycling, attitudes and waste management

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Resource Names	Cost
Project schedule development for canned soup	81 days	Mon 9/14/15	Mon 1/4/16		£250,283.00
Initiation phase	28 days	Mon 9/14/15	Wed 10/21/15		£75,392.00
Selection of the major food manufacturing company where to serve the canned products	6 days	Mon 9/14/15	Mon 9/21/15	Project manager ,Research and development team member 1 ,Research and development team member 2	£12,288.00
Feasibility study	5 days	Tue 9/22/15	Mon 9/28/15	finance manager, marketing manager, Project manager ,project sponsors	£14,960.00
Project budget estimation	4 days	Tue 9/29/15	Fri 10/2/15	finance manager, Project manager ,marketing manager, Research and development team member 1 ,Research and development team member 2	£13,312.00
PESTLE analysis	6 days	Tue 9/29/15	Tue 10/6/15	marketing manager, Project manager ,project sponsors ,Research and development team member 1 ,Research and development team member 2	£20,832.00
Internal factors analysis	5 days	Wed 10/7/15	Tue 10/13/15	Research and development team member 1 ,finance manager, Project manager	£10,640.00
Competitor analysis	6 days	Wed 10/14/15	Wed 10/21/15	Research and development team member 2	£3,360.00
Milestone 1 Completion of project initiation phase	0 days	Wed 10/21/15	Wed 10/21/15	Project manager	£0.00
Planning phase	20 days	Thu 10/22/15	Wed 11/18/15		£71,354.00
Risk management plan	3 days	Thu 10/22/15	Mon 10/26/15	marketing manager, labeling company [1],Project manager ,project sponsors	£7,117.00
Stakeholder management plan	6 days	Tue 10/27/15	Tue 11/3/15	finance manager, Project manager ,project sponsors ,Research and development team member 1 ,Research and development team member 2	£20,832.00
Procurement management	6 days	Wed 11/4/15	Wed 11/11/15	project sponsors ,marketing manager, Project manager ,Research and development team member 1 ,Research and development team member 2	£20,832.00
Contingency management	4 days	Wed 11/4/15	Mon 11/9/15	labeling company [1],marketing manager, Project manager ,Research and development team member 1 ,Research and development team member 2	£10,813.00
Hiring team including experienced chef	5 days	Thu 11/12/15	Wed 11/18/15	project sponsors ,marketing manager, Project manager	£11,760.00
Milestone 2: Completion of project planning phase	0 days	Wed 11/18/15	Wed 11/18/15	Project manager	£0.00
Implementation phase	22 days	Thu 11/19/15	Fri 12/18/15		£78,241.00
Identifying preferred soup flavors to be prepared	6 days	Thu 11/19/15	Thu 11/26/15	Project manager ,marketing manager, project sponsors ,Research and development team member 1 ,Research and development team member 2	£20,832.00
Contract to can suppliers	5 days	Fri 11/27/15	Thu 12/3/15	Can supplier company[1],marketing manager, Project manager ,project sponsors	£11,828.00
Can labeling	6 days	Fri 12/4/15	Fri 12/11/15	labeling company [1],marketing manager, Project manager ,project sponsors	£14,173.00
Logistics development	5 days	Mon 12/14/15	Fri 12/18/15	project sponsors ,finance manager, marketing manager, Project manager	£14,960.00
Delivery of canned soups to different major food manufacturing companies	4 days	Mon 12/14/15	Thu 12/17/15	marketing manager, Project manager ,finance manager, project sponsors ,Research and development team member 1 ,Research and development team member 2	£16,448.00
Milestone 3: Completion of project closure phase	0 days	Fri 12/18/15	Fri 12/18/15	Project manager ,labeling company [0],marketing manager, project sponsors	£0.00
Project closure phase	11 days	Mon 12/21/15	Mon 1/4/16		£25,296.00
Final project documentation	4 days	Mon 12/21/15	Thu 12/24/15	Project manager ,finance manager, marketing manager	£8,832.00
Post project maintenance	3 days	Fri 12/25/15	Tue 12/29/15	project sponsors ,marketing manager, Project manager	£7,056.00
Stakeholder signoff	4 days	Wed 12/30/15	Mon 1/4/16	marketing manager, Project manager ,project sponsors	£9,408.00
Milestone 4: Completion of project closure phase	0 days	Mon 1/4/16	Mon 1/4/16	Project manager ,marketing manager, project sponsors	£0.00

Figure 3: Gantt chart for the canned soup product production

(Source: Created by author) 

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Resource Names
Milestone 1 Completion of project initiation phase	0 days	Wed 10/21/15	Wed 10/21/15	Project manager
Milestone 2: Completion of project planning phase	0 days	Wed 11/18/15	Wed 11/18/15	Project manager
Milestone 4: Completion of project closure phase	0 days	Fri 12/18/15	Fri 12/18/15	Project manager ,labeling company [0],marketing manager, project sponsors
Milestone 4: Completion of project closure phase	0 days	Mon 1/4/16	Mon 1/4/16	Project manager ,marketing manager, project sponsors

5. Undertake a Risk Analysis for the project and identify a Risk Management Strategy

Risks	Probability	Frequency	Impact	Managing  strategy
Lack of technical experts	High	Medium	Extreme	In order to mitigate the issues of technical expert professional training and development program should have to be arranged by the  canned products developers
Improper resource planning	High	Low	High	In the project initiation phase the project manager should identify proper resources and based on the project requirement the resources are to be allotted for proper activities.
Inaccurate business strategies	High	High	High	Both the business and marketing strategies should be developed in such a way so that the product can give tough competition to the rest of the companies.
Lack of invested capital	High	High	High	It is necessary for the  canned product manufacturing company to design the investment capital properly to avoid commercial risks

 Provide a Responsibility, Accountability, Consulted and Informed (RACI) Matrix for the project

Task Name	Project manager	Finance manager	Sponsors	Marketing manager	R&D team
Selection of the major food manufacturing company where to serve the canned products	R	I	C	A	I
Feasibility study	R	C	A	I	A
Project budget estimation	A	C	I	A	R
PESTLE analysis	C	R	I	C	A
Internal factors analysis	I	R	C	A	I
Competitor analysis	R	I	I	C	A
Risk management plan	R	I	I	C	A
Stakeholder management plan	I	C	A	I	R
Procurement management	C	A	I	C	R
Contingency management	C	I	A	C	R
Hiring team including experienced chef	A	C	C	R	A
Identifying preferred soup flavors to be prepared	C	A	I	C	R
Contract to can suppliers	C	I	A	C	R
Can labeling	A	C	A	C	C
Logistics development	R	I	R	I	I
Delivery of canned soups to different major food manufacturing companies	I	C	I	C	A
Final project documentation	R	I	I	C	A
Post project maintenance	I	C	A	I	R
Stakeholder signoff	R	I	R	I	R

Produce a Stakeholder Management Strategy for the key project stakeholders

Name of the stakeholder	Role	Contribution	Best way to manage
Project manager	Internal	The project manager is responsible to control and monitor the progress of the project.	Face to face meeting, presentation  and conference
Finance manager	Internal	By conducting a professional feasibility study to make sure that the project outcome is beneficial for the developers.	Face to face meeting
Marketing manager	Internal	Consider proper marketing medium to promote and launch all the necessary products.	Face to face meeting
R&D team	Internal	They should make an accurate research and development to produce quality and affordable products for the consumers.	Presentation and meeting
Project sponsors	External	The project sponsors are responsible to invest necessary budget to conduct the project successfully.	Meeting and presentation

Conclusion

From the overall discussion it can be concluded that, the canned soup producing  research and development team can collectively produce soups for major food companies by maintain and competitive advantages and other managerial components.  In order to decrease the error the external ambiance in terms of PESTE analysis of the manufacturing are done  addition with the stakeholder management, RACI matrix and risk management procedures. Based on the background of the product manufacturing and details it has been found that, initial budget for the development of the canned soup products is determined as £2.5 million. Again in order to reduce the workload from the project team members a work breakdown structure or work packages and a project timeline considering timeline is developed.  It is necessary for the project head and project team members to complete their allotted duties and job roles.

References

Bresnen, M., 2016. Institutional development, divergence and change in the discipline of project management. International journal of project management, 34(2), pp.328-338.

Costantino, F., Di Gravio, G. and Nonino, F., 2015. Project selection in project portfolio management: An artificial neural network model based on critical success factors. International Journal of Project Management, 33(8), pp.1744-1754.

Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.

Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.

Heldman, K., 2018. PMP: project management professional exam study guide. John Wiley & Sons.

Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-298.

Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Kucharska, W. and Kowalczyk, R., 2016. Trust, Collaborative Culture and Tacit Knowledge Sharing in Project Management–a Relationship Model.

Martens, M.L. and Carvalho, M.M., 2017. Key factors of sustainability in project management context: A survey exploring the project managers’ perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), pp.1084-1102.

Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), pp.202-217.

Salameh, H., 2014. A framework to establish a project management office. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(9), 19-26.

Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.

Succar, B., Sher, W., & Williams, A., 2013. An integrated approach to BIM competency assessment, acquisition and application. Automation in Construction, 35, 174-189.

Takey, S.M. and de Carvalho, M.M., 2015. Competency mapping in project management: An action research study in an engineering company. International Journal of Project Management, 33(4), pp.784-796.

Thamhain, H., 2013. Managing risks in complex projects. Project Management Journal, 44(2), 20-35.

Varajao, J., Dominguez, C., Ribeiro, P., & Paiva, A., 2014. Critical success aspects in project management: similarities and differences between the construction and software industry. Tehni?ki vjesnik, 21(3), 583-589.

vom Brocke, J., and Lippe, S. 2015. Managing collaborative research projects: A synthesis of project management literature and directives for future research. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), 1022-1039.